competitive-analysis

name	competitive-analysis
description	Map the competitive landscape for a market or product space: identify competitors, compare on key dimensions, and surface strategic moves. Writes a conforming report (per report-conventions) to <engagement_dir>/competitive-analysis/<market-slug>.md. Includes job posting analysis as a leading indicator of product direction.
argument-hint	<market, product, or company to analyse> [engagement_dir]
user-invocable	true
allowed-tools	WebSearch, WebFetch, Read, Write, Bash

Produce a competitive analysis for the named market/product/company and write a conforming report.

Step 0: Resolve arguments

Parse $ARGUMENTS as <market or product> [engagement_dir]. Trailing path-shaped token is the engagement directory; otherwise default to pwd. Resolve to an absolute path.

Step 1: Compute the output path

Subject slug: kebab-case, lowercase, ASCII (per report-conventions). For a named product or company, use the product/company name. For a market space, use the most specific phrase that identifies it.

Examples:

• Australian payroll software → australian-payroll-software
• Canva alternatives → canva-alternatives
• Notion → notion

Output path: $ENG/competitive-analysis/<slug>.md

If a file already exists at that path, ask before overwriting (overwrite / write a -2 sibling / abort).

Step 2: Stage the report from the template

mkdir -p "$ENG/competitive-analysis"
cp "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/competitive-analysis.md" "$ENG/competitive-analysis/<slug>.md"

Replace placeholders in frontmatter:

Placeholder	Replace with
{SUBJECT}	The market/product/company name as provided
{SUBTITLE}	Engagement directory basename, title-cased; drop the line if no useful inference
{DATE}	Today's ISO date

Step 3: Define the market

Write into the Market definition section of the staged file. Before identifying competitors, define what you're actually comparing:

• What problem is being solved?
• Who is the buyer? (individual, SMB, enterprise, government)
• What is the purchase unit? (subscription, licence, one-time, services)
• What geography? (global, US, AU/NZ, other)

If these aren't clear from the input, make your assumptions explicit in the output.

Step 4: Identify competitors

Three categories:

• Direct — same solution, same customer, competing for the same purchase decision
• Indirect — different solution, same underlying problem
• Substitutes — alternative approaches the buyer might choose instead (including doing nothing or building in-house)

Sources: G2 category pages, Capterra category pages, "alternatives to [product]" searches, industry analyst quadrant reports, LinkedIn "companies also viewed."

For AU/NZ markets: IBISWorld AU reports, Seek job postings pattern, local industry press.

List each competitor with a one-line positioning statement in the appropriate subsection of the Competitors identified section.

Step 5: Build the comparison matrix

For each identified competitor, research and fill into the Competitor comparison table:

Attribute	What to look for
Positioning	Their own words — tagline, homepage hero, ICP
Pricing tier	Free/freemium/SMB/mid-market/enterprise — exact pricing if public
Strengths	G2/Capterra review themes, analyst commentary, customer win stories
Weaknesses	Negative review themes, gaps in feature set, company risk factors

Step 6: Job postings as roadmap signal

Search each competitor's careers page and LinkedIn Jobs. Engineering hires in a new area signal product direction before any announcement.

Patterns to look for:

• New language or platform skills appearing in bulk (ML, mobile, specific cloud)
• Senior leadership hires in a new function (first Head of Enterprise Sales = moving upmarket)
• Spikes in hiring volume (growth mode) or absence of hiring (freeze or pivot)

For AU/NZ companies: check Seek (seek.com.au / seek.co.nz) alongside LinkedIn for a fuller picture of hiring activity.

Cross-reference with their public announcements — divergence between what they say and what they're hiring for is the more useful signal.

Record in the Hiring signals table.

Step 7: Recent strategic moves

For each competitor, note the last 12 months in the Recent strategic moves section:

• Acquisitions and partnerships
• Pricing changes or packaging shifts
• Major product launches or deprecations
• Fundraising rounds or M&A activity
• Leadership changes

Step 8: Differentiation analysis

Synthesise into the Differentiation analysis section: who is winning on what dimension, and why? One paragraph per meaningful differentiation axis. Take a position — don't just describe, conclude.

Step 9: Finalise the report

• Replace placeholder source rows with actual sources, tagged with tier per source-quality.
• Set status: Final once complete; optionally set confidence: 0-4.

Rules

• Define the market before mapping competitors. A comparison without scope is noise.
• Label market share estimates as estimates with source and date.
• Flag sources older than 18 months on competitive analysis — a competitor can ship a lot in that time.
• Don't produce a matrix so wide it can't be read. Cap at 6 attributes if there are more than 4 competitors.
• Job posting data is a leading indicator, not a fact. Label it as signal, not confirmation.
• One file per invocation. Don't write findings inline into chat.

Output

A single line: the absolute path to the written report.